Different in degree or kind; language (Introduction)

by dhw, Wednesday, December 24, 2014, 13:12 (3403 days ago) @ Balance_Maintained

TONY: People communicate to him, these days, directly through prayer. He needs no interpreter to understand them. [...] God does not speak directly to people any more. He speaks through his word the bible, and through the witness of his son.-Dhw: So people can talk TO God in their 2,883 - 6000-plus different languages, and he understands but doesn't respond. They can only find answers in the bible. That won't help much if people pray to him to help them, so may I assume that you believe he also listens to prayers and responds - perhaps with a thumbs up or down? I don't understand what you mean by “through the witness of his son”? The sentence itself makes no sense to me. Do you mean Christ speaks directly to the supplicant in the relevant language? But why “witness”? Apologies for my obtuseness, but do please explain in plain English.-TONY: You seem to expect to be able to just sit down and have a chat, a two way conversation with God, perhaps over tea, where you ask questions directly and he responds directly, in spoken words in your given language. -No, I am talking specifically about prayer.-TONY: Yet, that is not the end all be all of communication. You would recognize communication in the written word if it were written by anyone else, but you fail to set that same criteria for him. Jehovah (YHWH) is described as "the hearer of prayers". The question then is, how does he answer.-That is indeed the question. If I address someone directly, yes, I expect an answer. If I consult an instruction manual, I hope to find the answers. I accept the latter as a parallel to your bible but if, for instance, someone prays to God to cure their child of an illness, I would not expect to find the answer in the bible. My guess is that sometimes such prayers are answered, and sometimes they are not. And my next guess would be that the outcome would depend on the nature of the illness rather than the direct response of God. In any case, no matter whether it's thumbs up or down, the faithful can always respond, “It's God's will.”
 
TONY: Depsite its age, there have been many times when I have personally been struggling with something, prayed about it, and then subsequently found a fairly specific answer within its pages whether I was looking for it or not. However, other times they are answered through actions, and often not in the manner we would expect.-That doesn't surprise me in the least. -TONY: The reason I quoted that passage is that it specifically states that YHWH does not speak directly to humans, voice to voice, any longer. Despite that, the example of his son, when thoroughly examined does in fact provide a lot of answers to a lot of questions, and more importantly builds faith and assurance in what is to come. You may not agree, and that is certainly your right as a human with free will.
-So “through the witness of his son” = the stories told and advice given in the New Testament. Thank you.